The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Time to give Plutko a chance to start
With Josh Tomlin struggling and the Indians needing a spot start in a doubleheader against Toronto later this week, Adam Plutko should get a chance to show what he can do, David S. Glasier writes.
The Indians should consider removing Josh Tomlin from the starting rotation and replace him with Adam Plutko.
Tomlin, tagged for six runs on nine hits in a 10-4 loss to Seattle at Progressive Field on April 29, badly needs some time to regroup.
After five starts, the 33-year-old right-hander is 0-4 with a 9.16 ERA. In his last two outings, Tomlin has given up 13 runs and 10 hits, five of them home runs.
Plutko has earned the opportunity to test his stuff against big-league batters.
All signs point toward that opportunity arising on May 3, when the Indians will need a spot starter to work one of the games in that day’s scheduled doubleheader against Toronto at Progressive Field.
Successive postponements of games against the Blue Jays on April 14 and 15 at Progressive Field because of rain forced the playing of a twin bill on what was to have been an off day for both teams.
The numbers Plutko has put up this season at Triple-A Columbus make him the obvious choice for this assignment.
In five starts covering 30 2/3 innings, the 25-yearold right-hander from California is 3-2 with a 2.35 ERA. He’s notched 28 strikeouts and given up only eight walks. Opponents are batting a meager .165 against Plutko and have yet to connect for a home run.
Other considerations have Plutko being in the right place at the right time.
He made his last start for the Clippers on April 28, putting him exactly on track to start on May 3 with four days rest. It was quite a start.
Plutko was perfect for 7 2/3 innings, retiring all 23 batters he faced in what ended as an 8-0 victory over Indianapolis at Huntington Park. He had eight strikeouts and did not issue a walk. With an eye on pitch count, Columbus manager Chris Tremie lifted Plutko in favor of reliever Neil Ramirez.
“Nothing, man, nothing,” Indians manager Terry Francona said, smiling and shaking his head, when asked for a summary of the report he received on Plutko’s latest start.
The path taken by Plutko to this juncture has been sure and, for the most part, steady.
The 6-foot-3, 215-pound former UCLA standout was selected by the Indians in the 11th round of the 2013 draft after leading the Bruins to the College World Series title.
Plutko began his professional career in 2015 with the full-season Single-A Lake County Captains. He was 3-1 with a 3.93 ERA in 10 starts. He moved up the ladder quickly, reaching advanced Single-A Carolina in 2014, Double-A Akron in 2015 and Columbus in 2016.
He was promoted to the Indians late in the 2016 season, going 0-0 with a 7.36 ERA in two appearances covering 3 2/3 innings.
Spending all of 2017 in Columbus, Plutko went 7-12 with a 5.90 ERA in 24 appearances, 22 of them starts. Shortly after the end of the season, he had surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right hip.
“It looked like the hip really wasn’t helping last year,” Francona said.
This season, reports from Columbus indicate Plutko is effectively using a pitch mix featuring a fastball that sits in the low-to-mid 90s, curveball, slider and change-up.
“They said he’s really commanding his fastball,” Francona said. “So far, that’s been the biggest difference with him. His velocity is up maybe a little bit, but he’s really been commanding. That’s exciting to see.”
The Indians won’t give up on Tomlin, a battler and tireless worker who gets maximum mileage from what by major-league standards is marginal stuff. He posted 23 victories the previous two seasons and came up big during the Indians’ 2016 run to Game 7 of the World Series when late-season injuries to Trevor Bauer, Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar decimated the Indians’ starting staff.
Tomlin’s track record over seven-plus seasons buys him time to go to the bullpen and regroup.
Plutko’s promise earns him a look beyond one spot start.